Over 51K engineering seats vacant in state

As per the state’s Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell, around 1.64 lakh seats were available for engineering admission in the state this year and among them, 1.12 lakh students have confirmed their admission

Even as the third round of admissions is over, there are more than 51,000 vacant seats in engineering colleges across the state. Now, another special ‘A CAP round’ will be held after that admissions will be conducted for the remaining vacancies at the institution level, said officials.

Over the past few years, student response to engineering courses has declined. Due to this, more than half of the seats remained vacant, says expert. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

As per the state’s Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell, around 1.64 lakh seats were available for engineering admission in the state this year and among them, 1.12 lakh students have confirmed their admission at the end of round three and 51,355 seats are vacant.

“Over the past few years, student response to engineering courses has declined. Due to this, more than half of the seats remained vacant,” said Prof Abhijit Vaishampayan an education expert and faculty from a prominent engineering college.

“Considering the strong job packages and wide opportunities available in the IT sector, there was a steady increase in the admissions from engineering colleges to computer-related branches. At present, there is more competition for courses like IT, Computer, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Computer Science, Cyber Security etc.,” he said.

There are 46,290 computer engineering seats available in the state this year, and at the end of the third round, 33,355 students have secured admission.

Also, 18,668 seats are available for admission to the newly created branch of Artificial Intelligence, of which 13,531 admissions are confirmed.